Flowering Phenology Shifts in Response to Functional Traits, Growth Form, and Phylogeny of Woody Species in a Desert Area

Abstract

Climatic factors are considered the major driving forces for variation of flowering phenology among species. Yet, whether flowering phenology of woody species varies with functional traits, growth form, and phylogeny in arid regions is unknown. In the present study, we evaluated the relationships of three characteristics of flowering phenology (i.e., first flowering date, end of flowering date, and flowering duration) against functional traits, growth form, and phylogeny across 59 woody plant species across 3 years in Ürümqi city of the Xinjiang Autonomous Region, in Northwest China. The results showed that, plant functional traits and growth form had significant influences on the variability of flowering phenology among species. The contributions of fruit type (34.7-43.5%) and flower color (30.1-30.7%) to the variability of flowering phenology were larger than those of pollination mode (4.6-14.4%), life form (8.4-14%) and maximum plant height (9.7-13.1%). Trees had the significant correlations in terms of flowering duration against first flowering date and end of flowering date, while shrubs showed the opposite pattern. The values of phylogenetic signal (Blomberg's K) of the three characteristics of flowering phenology ranged from 0.36 to 0.43, which were significantly lower than the expectation of the Brownian motion model. Our results suggested that functional traits, growth form and phylogeny all affected variability of flowering phenology among species. Our results provide a new perspective for correctly evaluating the relationship between global climate change and plant reproduction.

Climate, urbanization, and species traits interactively drive flowering duration

“…Previous work has also suggested the importance of growth form for explaining variation in phenological sensitivity to climate (Richardson & O'Keefe, 2009;Wang et al, 2020). Larger shrubs and trees may be able to intercept more light compared with understory herbaceous plants, suggesting stronger direct effects compared to more climatically buffered understory plants.…”

“…Here we use a novel suite of methods and data resources to understand how flowering onset, offset, and duration vary across space and in relation to both climate and urbanization. In particular, we focus on 52 species of common flowering plants that differ in their flowering onset timing and in functional aspects of growth form and reproduction—traits that are expected to relate to differential response to climatic conditions (Sherry et al, 2007; Wang et al, 2020). Understanding how traits condition the phenological responses of species is critical to predicting the impacts of anthropogenic change.…”

“…Each filled 25 km by 25 km cell in the lower panel represents a location where phenometrics for at least one species could be estimated. The upper panel shows three hypothetical scenarios for spatial patterns of duration include: (a) longer flower durations in warm areas, which can happen if flower offset is less sensitive to temperature than flower onset (slope of offset shallower than onset); (b) fixed flower duration across areas with different annual average temperature, where the age of the structure after onset determines senescence timing, as might occur if there is stronger genetic control rather than environmental cues for offset; (c) shorter durations in warm areas, which can happen if the metabolic rate of flower offset is higher than that of flower onset with higher temperature (slope of offset steeper than onset) [Colour figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com] in their flowering onset timing and in functional aspects of growth form and reproduction-traits that are expected to relate to differential response to climatic conditions (Sherry et al, 2007;Wang et al, 2020). Understanding how traits condition the phenological responses of species is critical to predicting the impacts of anthropogenic change.…”

Species' traits and taxonomic distance can predict the hatching phenology of ostracod (Crustacea) resting eggs from tropical floodplain lakes

“…Functional traits are phenotypic characteristics that can influence ecosystem functioning through the survival of organisms and populations (Tilman, 2001). Recent studies have used functional trait analyses to explain phenologies of species of several biological groups (König et al, 2018;Stemkovski et al, 2020;Wang et al, 2020). This is, for example, common in plants, where there are different flowering phenologies in trees, shrubs, herbs, and grasses in relation to certain functional traits, such as growth form (Wang et al, 2020).…”

“…Recent studies have used functional trait analyses to explain phenologies of species of several biological groups (König et al, 2018;Stemkovski et al, 2020;Wang et al, 2020). This is, for example, common in plants, where there are different flowering phenologies in trees, shrubs, herbs, and grasses in relation to certain functional traits, such as growth form (Wang et al, 2020). Thus far, there are no studies using a functional trait approach to explain the hatching phenology of drought-resistant eggs from aquatic microcrustaceans.…”